Trevor Paglen Quotes
The U.S. space program has mythologies attached to pioneering and conquering, but the Russian tradition is very different. In the Russian tradition, the ultimate goal of humanity was to resurrect all humans.
Paglen, Trevor. The Last Pictures. University of California Press, 2012.
In the original radio transmission it sounds like “one small step for man” (missing the ‘a’). Armstrong always maintained he said “one small step for a man” although he admitted he couldn’t hear it in the recording of the audio transmission. In a later analysis in September 2006 by Peter Ford of Control Bionics claimed to have found a “signature for the missing ‘a’ but the results have not been validated by other audio analysts.
The American space program developed an intellectual schism between those who favored less emphasis on manned space flight and more on automated and robotic probes and those like Franz who thought there should be more manned missions. The manned missions generated the most excitement from the public and tended to get the most public support. The unmanned missions were far less expensive as the multiple layers of safety was not needed to protect lives, they could go one for many years, and they provided much more scientific information. Kranz and many others thought that the movement towards unmanned missions reflected a lack of leadership. Opponents felt that what Kranz wanted was leadership style that did not take sufficient account to the likely scientific contribution for the money spent and placed more value on drama and adventure.
Trevor Paglen (born 1974) is an American artist, geographer, and author whose work tackles mass surveillance and data collection.
